re:mote voices

Title: Vendredi Soir
Cast: Valérie Lemercier, Vincent Lindon, Hélène de Saint-Père
Director: Claire Denis

well as i suggested earlier today, i went and saw vendredi soir this evening, the latest film by french director Claire Denis. after previously seeing her trouble every day, i guess i should have expected that vendredi soir would be difficult. and it is. extremely difficult. though in such a way that it isn't shocking or really challenging. to some vendredi soir is the kind of film they will find painfully dull, to others it is an experimental narrative.

the film creates a curious mood from the start. like trouble the film can easily be described as sparse, at least in terms of dialogue. it feels like the first five minutes before we actually see a person. even then it is a time before we hear any voices. even once the story has started the atmosphere is maintained. during this first section tension mounts to uncomfortable levels, we are presented with a situation which becomes stressful to watch. even once that scene is done, we have been knocked off track enough that we are never quite sure what is happening. the fact that there little illusory touches here and there that could almost have been imaginary, add to the sense of bemusement.

while there are other people in the film, there are really only two characters, in the same way that there are background details, but only the interaction between the two counts. Laure (Valérie Lemercier) is driving to see friends, but there is a transport strike on, so paris has ground to a halt. this sets up a length scene where we are stuck in traffic, bumper to bumper, a constant barrage of revving engines, of parping horns, of growing discomfort. the camera flicks periodically from car to car, we see the frustrated, the bored, the people at the end of their tether. listening to the radio it is suggested that drivers could help out tired and cold pedestrians, unable to get transport home, by letting them share the warmth of their cars. so when a strange man knocks on laure's window and asks to get in to her car she is happy to help.

Laure and Jean (Vincent Lindon) are strangers. yet here they are sitting in a car together. keeping with the mode of the film the dialogue exchanged between the two is light - they exchange names, and very little else. the traffic jam is extended still, but with the two of them waiting it out. till eventually the road is blocked entirely and laure realises she is never going to make it to her friends. from there we have a dizzying moment, where jean takes charge and laure is confused and paniced by the reality that she doesn't know this man at all. still from there they spend the rest of the film in a hotel room together.

the result of all this is baffling. the whole strike situation seems to create this alternate state of reality, which absorbs the characters and the viewers. the film becoming entirely bogged down in this unrelenting depiction of gridlock. the emotions and stresses of this resulting enviroment are about the only things i can think of that would explain the way things develop. vendredi soir is odd i think, certainly it is not for everyone - i imagine that a good proportion of folk that attempt to watch this film will hate it. claire denis clearly continues to excercise the skills that she is trying to use, creating a heightened form of minimalism, which is present in trouble every day as well as films like the spanish nomadas.